Inversion
by Sir Raphael
Summary: A desperate Jonathan Archer uses a potentially dangerous subspace corridor to make his deadline, but what about those he left behind?  The crew of the Enterprise of the future must fight their way beside Lorian to survive in a hostile world away from home
1. Reversals

**Inversion**

* * *

_Author's Note_: This is my first Star Trek fan fiction, and before I begin, let me say that I have only ever watched Enterprise and Voyager. If I make a mistake, _please_ correct me. I'm not quite as into this as some folks who probably know how high Shran is. This takes place during the episode E2 of Enterprise. You may see other folks from our world head into the Mirror Universe as well. 

I heard the best joke on YouTube about this- the Mirror Universe is what happens when Bush won the elections...:P

* * *

**Chapter One Reversals**

* * *

"Keep firing!" Those were the last words Lorian said before the Enterprise was hit again. A tremendous explosion blasted out a panel from the side of the wall. To the half-Vulcan, it seemed the floor rose up to meet him as he blacked out. 

Through a darkened haze of semi-consciousness, he could hear Karyn shouting, "They're clear!"

The Enterprise faded in and out briefly, apparently struggling to retain its integrity and place. T'Pol closed her eyes. What might it feel like to be chronologically ripped apart? Then the ship faded back in with a permanency that no one could question, groaning slightly. Outside the ship, particle beams blurred as they neared the Enterprise before passing through harmlessly. The ship itself became indiscernible amidst a group of mirror images as temporal disturbances raged outside. The ship settled into place as Lorian staggered upright, hearing Karyn's voice again.

"Impulse manifold damaged! We're going through the passage!" Lorian's head jerked up at this as he stumbled to the impulse controls. A spray of sparks shot from the console and it darkened. Lorian swore.

"Is the corridor destabilizing?" he asked, forehead pounding. Karyn shook her head in the affirmative. Lorian's face went carefully blank.

"What do we do now? We can't mess with the timeline- I think we proved that ourselves. We can't warn _ourselves_ again."

Time passed, and the lights in the bridge gradually began to come on as systems came online. Lorian sat in his chair in exhaustion, watching an ETA timer count down. It passed zero, continuing on. All hands braced for the expected rumble of expulsion, but it never came.

"Possible explanations?" he asked. Karyn shifted. "T'Pol might know-"

"In fact, I do." said the Vulcan, opening a channel. Lorian answered it, listening intently. "We've destabilized the corridor again, but we have no guarantee that we're going back to the same spot. Our particle wake was different. In this case, we seem to be going into the future."

"Is that worse or better?" asked Karyn offhandedly. No one on the bridge answered her as the ship plowed on.

Several hours passed, and the Enterprise shook occasionally with the rigors of space-time travel. Now and then, there would be cause for serious alarm, but Lorian, an engineer's son, quickly got everything under control each time. It was ten hours after the expected time of arrival when the ship was spat out, the blue glow behind them fading. The ship rattled and groaned, then settled in place. Lorian was up immediately. "Location? Time?"

"We're somewhere off of Rigel X, if scanners are correct." answered Gemar, the Denobulan tactical officer. While Phlox had died long ago, Gemar had taken the spot vacated by Travis Mayweather while his sister, Marel, took sickbay. Lorian quickly ordered 'all' stop for repairs- these were completed shortly after. The Enterprise went forward on half impulse, but they'd only been moving for a short time when they were stopped and hailed.

"Put it onscreen." ordered Lorian. The screen flickered, then everyone stepped back as Shran's visage filled the screen. He surveyed the bridge briefly, and then began to speak.

"State your business here, before we open fire, pink-skins!" Lorian stepped forward, his mind uncomprehending.

"Shran? Didn't you die long ago?" he asked. The Andorian faced him, looking at him with- was that hatred? Not answering the question, he burst out angrily,

"No, but I should have! Commander Trip...I should kill you right now!"

"I am not Trip Tucker!" shouted Lorian, moving forward again. "My name is Lorian Tucker, son of Trip and T'Pol! Why are you yelling so- weren't you and Trip friends? This is the Enterprise- you remember, don't you?"

"Oh, I remember the Enterprise." said Shran bitterly. "The ship that nearly destroyed the Kumari, the ship that killed my wife-to-be! No, Lorian, I was _never_ a friend of your father, the despicable worm! Were it not for him, my fiancée might be alive right now!" The Andorian turned and cut the channel with a brusque gesture. Karyn looked up.

"The Kumari is charging weapons."

"Put all power to hull plating, stand down weapons!" ordered Lorian. "Gemar, take us in closer. Maybe we can reason with him."

The moments ticked by as everyone waited for the jolt. It didn't come- instead, a beeping noise began to sound from the communications console. Serina, who'd taken over Hoshi's station, answered it. Shran came onscreen again.

"Why aren't you firing, pink-skin? Put up a fight!"

"I told you," began Lorian evenly, "I'm not here to start a fight. I just want to know what's going on." Shran breathed heavily for a moment, and then Karyn spoke.

"The Kumari is lowering her defenses and deactivating weapons."

"All right, pink skin. You're alive for a bit longer. I want to come aboard and see if you're who you really are. Any false play and the Kumari-"

"I understand, Commander." said Lorian. With that, he cut the communication.

* * *

It was some time later when Shran beamed aboard with two guards behind him. All showed signs of a hard life, scars and frayed clothing telling the story. One guard and Shran had phase-pistol scorch marks on their shirts. Shran stepped forwards. 

"Alright, pink-skin. Let's see your proof."

"Our computer logs can tell the story." replied Lorian, and he provided the pass code for the ship's databases. Shran sat down at one of the terminals and began to pull up files. As timed passed, his face, illuminated and pale, changed. From anger to sadness, his face displayed the full range of emotions- then went blank as he brusquely terminated the computer. Standing up, he nodded shortly

"Everything seems to be in order...Lorian. We'll let you through. You'll find things are quite a bit different here."

The Enterprise drifted through a large aperture in the rock face of a planetary mountain. As the starship drifted through, a titanium door sealed shut behind them. Hangar lights flickered on, illuminating the massive space that the rebels used as their docking port.

It was eerily empty, except for the Kumari and three other vessels, along with two Vulcan cruisers. Shran jerked his head in response to Lorian's unasked question- "We lost the rest of our ships in a battle awhile ago."

* * *

With the crew having disembarked except for a scratch party, Lorian followed Shran to what appeared to be a meeting room of sorts. Shran looked at the half-Vulcan, taking in his features for the first time. He didn't ask questions about his heritage though- his question was more down-to-earth. 

"Do you mind if I share your database with my officers?"

"Not at all." answered Lorian, and he looked about the room, sparsely furnished with only the bare essentials. He guessed this group had no money to spend on novelties.

Shran pressed a button on the desk, and soon after, members of all species began to trickle in. Vulcans, Andorians, Tellerites, and many others. Lorian even spotted some Orions and a few Xindi. They sat- he sat. Shran folded his hands and gestured to Lorian.

"Please, welcome Lorian, captain of the starship Enterprise." When murmurs began to shoot through the assembled people and several reached for weapons, Shran's antennae moved forward aggressively. "No, not the Enterprise you're thinking off...this ship is not the ISS Enterprise." There was some relief in the room, before Gral of the Tellerites spoke up.

"But then what nationality is it?"

"Starfleet." replied Lorian easily. The growling in the room started before Shran took a PADD and waved it towards one screen. Instantly, information began to scroll across it.

"He is from Starfleet - but not the one we know. I had a chance to read his computer database, and he and his crew are from a separate universe...a parallel universe. One where there is no empire- where we are treated as equals. In exchange for this information, it's only fair we tell him what goes on here in return."

"Things are different here than in your universe," explained Shran as the others went to examine the data. "There was no Federation. Earth's 'first contact' with the Vulcans amounted to a party of raiders, lead by Zefram Cochrane, swarming the Vulcan ship and seizing it to further themselves. Earth became the center of an empire- the Terran Empire. They enslaved all the species in your Federation, even species such as the Orions. We're a rebel group- but we can't hold up for long. They got a new ship somehow...it destroyed three of our ships within two minutes."

Lorian shook his head. "Nothing from our universe can do that." he said. "The firepower must be immense!"

"Not only that," added Shran miserably, "but by now, it's over Earth. They could make a fleet of Defiant-like ships- and that'd be the end of us. But that ship is from your world." Shran slid a PADD over the table, displaying the Defiant. The UES on the front was unmistakable- the emblem of the United Earth fleet.


	2. Twisted

**Inversion**

* * *

_Author's Note_: Sorry about taking so long to update this, but I had a lot of things to do for the Star Fox fan community (an excellent one if I say so myself, please go check it out!), but I'm back here to this story. I saw Fortunate Son just a few days ago, and it was one of the best episodes I've seen yet. Here's hoping for better.

* * *

**Chapter 2 Twisting

* * *

**"So, can you help us?" asked Shran, leaning forward eagerly. "Your ship passed through a parallel universe, and so surely you have something that can help us." 

"From what you've said," began Lorian solemnly, "our ship would be a liability. The original Enterprise in my universe could take a Klingon bird-of-prey, but only with Travis Mayweather at the helm. And against an Andorian or Vulcan cruiser? Not a chance. Now, take our ship and advance it a hundred and thirteen years of aging. If this Defiant can take out your ships with one blow, there's no way in hell we'll survive." The half-Vulcan leaned back and crossed his arms.

"Still," persisted Shran, "there must be something you have that can help us here."

"Something we don't have." added Gral. "An advantage."

Lorian thought for a moment, then looked at Karyn. He nodded. "I think we might have one. But you aren't going to like it."

* * *

"So let me get this straight, pink-skin." said Shran some time later. "She says," he began, pointing at T'Pol, "that if we shoot our particle cannons at your point of emergence long enough..." 

"It'll create a transdimensional backlash and send us back. And once there, I think we can do it again."

The others present reluctantly agreed. Several ships launched soon afterwards, and along with the Enterprise's hodgepodge of phase-cannons and particle-weapons opened a rift, which came into being quite explosively, a swirling array of colors that began to fade almost immediately. The other ships kept firing, breathing more life into the swirl. Lorian hailed Shran and Gral a last time before the Enterprise disappeared into the disturbance, the Enterprise beginning to tumble this time as she went through. There were many crossed fingers behind them.

The trip to wherever was an exceedingly bumpy one. Three times, the ship came very close to coming to pieces. Still, with a little coaxing from her captain and the work of her engineers, the gallant old Enterprise made it through, being spat out close to the Sol System. Lorian was careful to make note of the exact coordinates, before he had Karyn set the course for Earth.

* * *

It was strange to him. This was where his father had been born, along with the parents of most of his crew. But they had never seen it, for fear of destroying their own culture. Lorian almost toyed with the idea of leaving to wait until he saw a strange installation on Mars that had not been there before. That ended his doubts about the time period. He was in the right universe, and the right time. 

It was the NX-02 Columbia that found them. The much newer ship had had her weapons charged, as no human ship was supposed to be in this area of space. Tensions were still running high after the Romulan drones. Captain Erika Hernandez looked at the ship before her, wrestling with what to do. Enterprise was decomissioned in a museum, though she had not been stripped yet. Yet here it was before her, battle-scarred and damaged. She made her choice, and locked on her two phase cannons.

"They've locked weapons on us." said Karyn.

"Evasive maneuvers," replied Lorian. The Enterprise made a sharp turn that confused Columbia's targeting scanners. Erika gritted her teeth. This was probably a drone ship. "Torpedoes, full spread!" she ordered. Photonic torpedoes when roaring out of their housings, and this time, the Enterprise was unable to evade all of them. The polarized hull plating took the blast, but not well. Lorian then began to hail the Columbia, angered, but he stopped when he realized the ship was already communicating with someone. The transmission ended and he hailed again.

Hernandez was not expecting the face before her when she answered the hail, and she almost took a step back. Lorian was practically shouting at her, though she could only make out garbled bits of his yells.

"...the _hell_ are you firing? This ship is the Enterprise! I'm the son of Trip and T'Pol!" At this, shock spread across the faces of the others on the bridge, and that of Erika herself. She steeled herself to speak.

"You must be delusional," she said in a forced calm. "Trip is dead. He died five years ago." Suspicion colored her voice. She saw him tense at his first statement, but then lower his head at the second. Lorian's brain was numb. Trip was dead. His father was gone, and he'd have no chance to see him again. Lorian was raising his head, his mouth forming words when there was a loud beep from one of the consoles. Karyn read off the alert.

"There's a ship dropping out of warp." she announced. The screen cut in half to display a wonderfully-sleek looking ship. While it was clearly an NX-Class ship, there was something different about it. It had a more menacing aspect to it than the Columbia and it looked faster- much faster. The channel with the Columbia abruptly closed.

"What the hell is this all about?" asked Lorian. Karyn shook her head. Another tone began to sound. Karyn opened the questing channel.

Jonathan Archer's face appeared on the screen. He smiled. "Lorian! Good to see you!"

"You too, Jon," replied the half-Vulcan, slightly more subdued. "Trip...?" he asked, almost pointedly. Archer cringed.

"Dead. Dead of five years. He blew out a comm panel to kill a bunch of marauders." Lorian was nodding- that was the way his father would go.

* * *

"And that," finished Archer, "is the NX-06 Solaris." His arm swept out as they reached the bridge. Familiar faces were up almost immediately- Hoshi Sato, Malcolm Reed, Travis Mayweather." 

"None of you have your own ships yet?" he queried in a light voice.

"Wouldn't be able to handle it," was Hoshi's answer.

"Couldn't dream of not shooting my own guns." Malcolm.

"Archer's the man- er, admiral," was Travis's answer. The pilot grinned widely as he threw the ship into a roll. Lorian staggered a bit before he regained his balance- he then saw the rest had already prepared for this.

"Alright, guys," he laughed. "No more crazy stunts for me!" Lorian's gaze swept over the bridge, and he noticed that, for the most part, the ship was almost completely identical to _his_ Enterprise. And that drove him to ask another question. "What happened to the NX-01?"

Archer grinned. "Captain Hernandez," he began, his voice professional, "does not quite know how many favors I have." He thumped a fist onto a console. "Command of the NX-01 Enterprise, covertly undergoing upgrades, is going to a certain T'Pol." Lorian gaped as Archer continued. "The NX-01 is currently being fitted with experimental shields and our more powerful phase cannons. However, this ship, the NX-06, has a few prototype weapons of her own." He nodded at Malcolm. "Target one of the asteroids and fire one of the NC's."

"With pleasure," said the tactical officer. There was a low beep as a lock was acquired, then the officer depressed two buttons. Two streams of blue, looking somewhat like Andorian particle beams, shot outwards. The asteroid blew up with a tremendous explosion. Lorian had already crossed over to Reed's console.

"Neutron weapons?" he asked. Archer nodded.

"The best!" exclaimed Malcolm before Archer could speak. "These neutron cannons can instantly destabilize the hulls of most enemies. They make a hell of an explosion, too." Then a bit of his fire abated as he added, "But they're only marginally effective against shields."

"That won't be a problem," replied Lorian, still surveying the rubble interestedly. "Where I'd like to go, there aren't any shields."

* * *

"A mirror universe?" asked Jonathan some time later, somewhat incredulously. Lorian nodded. 

"I wouldn't believe it either," he said, "if my crew and I hadn't been there. They need help, Jon. You can give it to them. You're an admiral now, and the hero of Earth. Surely, you can persuade Starfleet to help."

Archer's face was troubled as he came with a reply. "I'd love to help- I really would. But we've been having trouble with the Romulans lately. I don't know if we can spare ships..." he trailed off, looking at the stars. Lorian was about to sigh when Archer finished his thought. "For long."

"You'll help them?" asked the half-Vulcan, some hope in his voice. Archer nodded once.

"But I'll have to put a limit on how long we can help. I can't leave my own planet defenseless for too long."

"What ships can you offer?" pressed Lorian.

"I believe I can give you the services of the NX-01 Enterprise, the NX-02 Columbia, the NX-04 Nova, and my NX-06 Solaris. That will leave the NX-03 Admiral Forrest and the NX-05 Orion here in case of trouble. And," added Archer, "I believe that, once I cut the red tape, I can get your NX-01 fixed up a bit."

"Thank you," said Lorian. "When can we start?"

Archer looked at a PADD for a moment. "Three days time," he promised. "Hell or high water."


	3. Spirited Charge

**Inversion**

* * *

_Author's Note_: Thanks to archiv for the reviews. Here is the next installation in Inversion.

* * *

**Chapter 3 Spirited Charge**

* * *

The three days Archer had asked for went by in no time at all. Admiral Gardener had been one of the first at Starfleet to meet Lorian, and he had been appalled at the conditions of this mirror universe. Although he questioned the exact morality of the action he was about to take, Gardener had authorized Archer to use whatever resources he might need while Gardener himself accelerated the refitting programs for the ships in question. Going over the design schematics from the mirror T'Pol, Gardener was also spearheading new renovations for their ships, as well as turning these designs over to Karyn, who found weak spots on the Defiant that Starfleet's new neutron cannons could easily penetrate, as soon as the shields were down to at least 75 percent. For that cause, prototype phase cannons set for a continuous beam were being installed on several of the newer ships. 

Lorian's crew were busy sampling the delights of Earth while the NX-01 Enterprise was in spacedock, undergoing extensive refit and upgrades. New phase cannons were being installed, rated now to up to a hundred megajoules, and the new neutron cannons were also being fitted in separate ports. Both Enterprises had now almost tripled their original firepower, and while the gains for the new ships were not quite as impressive, the extra fifty percent was nothing to sneeze at.

Karyn had spent some time to catch up with her father, who had been delighted to have his daughter around to help him at work. Although she understood that her mother would not be a part of Archer's life in this world, he was still her father, and she loved him as her own.

The work went by with even greater speed after the public had learned of the mirror universe's stigma, and the resulting deluge of workers was nearly more than the spacedocks could handle. And while the refits took a week, they had begun far before Archer's three days were up.

From there, things got harder. Lorian's point of emergence had sealed over, making the particle weapon solution quite useless. It was decided to destabilize the Xindi subspace corridor once more- though very carefully to prevent a disastrous miss.

Getting into the Delphic Expanse, or what was left of it, would take some time. Another two weeks went by contacting Earth's friends in the Xindi Primates and Aboreals. These, coupled with the Aquatics, would be sufficient to keep the still-hostile Insectoids and Reptilians at bay.

Lorian had to fight biting his lip in frustration. Time was wasting, he thought, and he was very eager to get underway.

Shran was called out of retirement to head a starship detachment from Andoria, the matter having quickly become something of importance to the Coalition of Planets. And while it was only the Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellerites responding, it was a step up from previous joint operations, and something that a happy Archer constantly talked about to anyone he could.

* * *

Then, finally, the date of departure had come. A combined fleet from much of the Coalition of Planets was now en route to the subspace corridor at warp 6.5. Although the heavily reinforced Enterprises and several other retro-fitted ships lagged behind a bit, the arrival at the nebula was far ahead of schedule, despite frequent Klingon and Orion raids. These were easily repulsed- a single neutron beam was often enough to disable an Orion interceptor, and Klingon birds-of-prey no longer had the luxury of impregnable shields. 

T'Pol's numerous calculations to destabilize the corridor took up another two days where they should have taken one. But then finally, everything that was needed for the jump was done. Each ship's impulse manifolds were calibrated exactly to make the corridor destabilize, and it was Archer's NX-06 Solaris that went into the nebula first, the other ships following.

"We'll have a weapons lock once we get a little closer, sir," said Malcolm. "Just give me another 2,000 meters."

"You'll have them. Travis?"

"I'm on it sir." Under Travis's skilled touch, the Solaris spun towards the Kovalaan ships. The ship was shaking even before it came into range as disrupter bolts spattered across her shields.

"Report!" called Archer, glancing at Reed.

"Shields are holding at 95 percent. No damage to hull plating."

"Range?"

"1,500 yards. I have a lock."

"Then don't wait, open fire already!"

"With pleasure," replied the Englishman dourly before he depressed a row of buttons on his console. Three phase cannons on the saucer's underside and the top-mounted neutron cannon opened fire at once, causing the Kovalaan to burst into flame and spin off crazily.

"Next target, Mr. Reed," ordered Archer. "Shoot to disable. Hoshi, relay that to the fleet."

The four cannons lanced out again, disabling the next ship. As the other coalition ships entered the nebula, two of the five Kovalaans were out of the fight. The Kumari II claimed the next ship, and the Columbia managed to get the next one. Lorian's Enterprise was the first into the corridor, with T'Pol close behind. The other ships fell one by one into two columns and entered the corridor.

* * *

Shran was conducting his patrol when Talas began to pick up subspace distortions. Hoping the week's wait was not in vain, the Andorian set out for the cause of the disturbance. 

The Kumari came to a full stop next to a region of shimmering space that Talas confirmed was an transdimensional rift. Shran watched anxiously as a bright light began to suffuse the area- then smiled widely as Lorian's Enterprise left the rift. Then the rift grew wider. Shran could only gape as T'Pol's Enterprise left the rift as well. Then the NX-02 Columbia, followed by the NX-04 and the NX-06. Then came ships of the Andorian Imperial Guard, then of the Tellerite Fleet. Next came the Vulcans. At last, the procession closed with the arrival of several Xindi ships, notably several Aquatic battlecruisers and a legion of Primate ships. Lorian's Enterprise, newly titled the NX-01-02 hailed the mirror Shran's Kumari. The Andorian answered it, still looking shocked.

"We're back," said the half-Vulcan with a grin. "Hope we didn't miss anything."

Shran could only grunt and terminate the link, flaring his impulse engines to signal the rest for follow.

* * *

The mountain hangar was now jam-packed with coalition ships, a sad reminder of how many ships the rebels had lost. That their hangar had been large enough to accommodate this many ships was a testament to the strength of the Defiant. 

"We can destroy the Defiant," said Archer to the mirror Shran, "but it will require us to get their shields down by about a quarter." Seeing Shran breathe a sigh, Archer made a query. "Something wrong?"

"What you said," said Shran. "Your...counterpart here captured the Defiant. That's how..."

"My god..." whispered Archer. He looked crushed. Karyn stepped up.

"This isn't you, father..."

"But it could be," he replied. It was with a visible effort that he straightened again to look the mirror Shran in the eye. "If he's still alive, I will kill him- myself."

* * *

It was a defeated Hoshi Sato who now wore the neuro-restraint. How quickly the tables had turned! Archer, who had been poisoned before, had carefully built up a resistance to her own toxin and repelled it. Now, she was in the same spot as she was on the Enterprise- Captain's Woman. 

Or, Emperor's Woman, she guessed. Fleet Admiral Gardener was too bitter with Archer's coup, and he was dispatched by a still-loyal Travis Mayweather. From there, Archer had left Malcolm Reed, fresh out of sickbay, in command of Starfleet. He himself made his throne on the Defiant, not trusting the ship to anyone but himself. His permission was now required for most things aboard the ship- to make it move, shoot, go to warp- anything that could harm him should the ship be turned against him. The rebels were mostly gone as well- Jonathan Archer was the undisputed ruler of the Alpha Quadrant. And while the Klingons had not yet been subverted, well, that could be taken care of later.

Hoshi fell limp as the door hissed open. The mirror Archer grinned at her as he came into the room, having activated her neural restraint. She was sprawled on the bed, watching helplessly and angrily as he sat next to her...


End file.
